1660. Commis negotiate a conducted pleasant negotiations with the authorities at că. XIX. Jamestown. Upon the death of Governor Mathews, Sir William Berkeley was called from his eight years' retirement, and reinstated by the Assembly, which foresaw the triumph of the royal cause in England. Stuyvesant, whose brother-in-law, Nicholas Varlett, was about visiting James- 23 Feb. town on private business, took advantage of the occasion to appoint him and Captain Bryan Newton commissioners to negotiate an intercolonial treaty. They were in- 27 Feb. structed to go to Virginia "to renew our former and ancient sioners to friendship, correspondence, and neighborship; to propose to treaty. them a more strict offensive and defensive union against the savage and barbarous nations, the enemies of both; and to conclude, on a more certain basis, a treaty of commerce, in the manner our lords and principals, with their subjects, are enjoying in Europe." The Dutch agents were also directed to endeavor to enlist as many Scotchmen as they 1 March. could obtain; to inquire in Maryland if danger threatened the South River; and to avail themselves of the "aid and tongue of Augustine Heermans," who was then in Virginia. On reaching Jamestown, Varlett and Newton were received with favor, and a satisfactory treaty was promptly nego- March. tiated. A "free trade and commerce" was stipulated be- Treaty artween New Netherland and Virginia; the inhabitants of the respective provinces were reciprocally to enjoy "equal dispatch and justice in each other's courts of judicature;" runaway servants were to be mutually surrendered; and the creditors of absconding debtors were assured swift redress. The Assembly at once passed a law to give effect March. to the treaty in Virginia; and with equal promptitude the New Netherland government established a favorable tariff 6 May. of duties on imports and exports from and to Virginia. ranged. Moody's Manhattan. Soon afterward, Berkeley dispatched Sir Henry Moody, 18 May. the son of Lady Moody of Gravesend, "on an embassy to embassy to the Monhadoes," to exchange the ratifications of the treaty. Upon his reaching New Amsterdam, the "ambassador of the 21 June. governor and assembly of Virginia" was received with all the usual diplomatic honors. Two members of the coun 1660. Correspondence 30 Berkeley's letter to Stuyve sant. CH. XIX. cil, accompanied by halberdiers, were sent "to compliment him in his lodgings;" and Moody, appearing with the committee in Fort Amsterdam, presented his credentials, and also private letters from Berkeley soliciting a loan of four thousand pounds of tobacco from the Dutch, to be returned in kind the next November. Twelve hundred guilders were accordingly advanced; and the articles of the treaty were discussed and adopted. A correspondence followed, with Vir in which Stuyvesant unsuccessfully attempted to draw ginia. from the governor of Virginia an express recognition of the 20 August. Dutch title to New Netherland. "Truly, sir," wrote Berkeley in reply, "you desire me to do that concerning your titles and claims to land in this northern part of America which I am in no capacity to do; for I am but a servant of the Assembly, neither do they arrogate any power to themselves further than the miserable distractions of England force them to. For when God shall be pleased in his mercy to take away and dissipate the unnatural divisions of their native country, they will immediately return to their own professed obedience. What, then, they should do in matters of contract, donation, or confession of right, would have little strength or signification; much more presumptive and impertinent would it be in me to do it without their knowledge or assent." The Amsterdam directors promptly signified their approbation of Stuyvesant's negotiations with Virginia. "A free and unshackled commerce with that nation," wrote they in reply, "must be conducive to the prosperity of your city and its inhabitants."* 20 Sept. 29 May. 8 June. Restoration of Charles II. The fugitive King of England had, meanwhile, been restored to the throne. On his way from Breda to London, Charles the Second was magnificently entertained at the Hague; and as he took his leave of the States General, he pointedly declared that he would feel jealous if the Dutch should prefer the friendship of any other state to that of Great Britain. But England, observing her commercial * Alb. Rec., iv., 351; xviii., 97, 157; xxiv., 101-106, 199, 301, 302, 399-402; Herring's Stat. at large, 539, 540; Chalmers, 125; Smith's N. Y., i., 10, 11; O'Call., ii., 408, 413415; Col. Rec. Conn., 387; Thompson's L. I., ii., 174; Bancroft, ii., 310; Hildreth, i., 366. 442; ante, p. 559, 562. Varlett's name is often spelled "Verlett" and "Varleth." measures. 1660. igation. prosperity, envied Holland; and the convention Parlia- CH. XIX ment, which had called home the king, took early steps to render still more obnoxious one of England's most selfish The Navigation Act of 1651 was revised; and Act of Navit was now enacted, that after the first day of December, 1660, no merchandise should be imported into or exported from any of his majesty's plantations or territories in Asia, Africa, or America, except in English vessels, of which "the master and three fourths of the mariners at least are English."* Lord Balti mands the of the sessions on River. Charles had hardly reached Whitehall, before Lord Bal- 24 July. timore instructed Captain James Neale, his agent in Hol- more deland, to require of the West India Company to yield up to surrender him the lands on the south side of Delaware Bay. Neale Dutch posaccordingly made a formal demand for the surrender of the South New Amstel, and informed the directors that Lord Balti- 23 August. more would use all lawful means to defend his rights and subject the Dutch to his authority. The Amsterdam Chamber referred the question to the College of the XIX., who returned a "proud answer" that the company's rights were 1 Sept. by possession under grant of the States General; that they the w. 1. were resolved to defend those rights; and that, if Lord Baltimore should persevere and resort to violent measures, "they would use all the means which God and nature had given them to protect the inhabitants and preserve their possessions."+ Answer of Company. Memorial Seriously alarmed at the condition of New Netherland, which, after an outlay of one million of guilders, was only now in a position to sustain itself, the College of the XIX. 5 Nov addressed a memorial to the States General, praying them of the W. I. to instruct their ambassadors at London to demand of the to the king that Lord Baltimore should be ordered to desist from General. his pretensions until a boundary line should be settled; and also, that the territory which the English had usurped at * Aitzema, iv., 598; Basnage, i., 606; Lingard, xii., 65-69; Davies, iii., 10-13; Bancroft, ii., 30-43; Chalmers, 241, 257; Act xii. Charles II., cap. xviii., Statutes at large, iii., 166; ante, p. 543, 653. † Alb. Rec., iv., 354; viii., 292-302; Hol. Doc., ix., 111-126, 175-177; Lond. Doc., iv., 175-177; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 344, 345; O'Call., ii., 460, 461; S. Hazard, Ann. Penn., 317, 318; Smith's N. Y., i., 12. Company States 1660. CH. XIX. the East, and on Long Island, should be restored, and the inhabitants be required to conduct themselves as Dutch subjects. The memorial likewise prayed that the treaty at Southampton of 1625, which allowed the company's ships the free use of English ports, should be renewed. Accompanying the memorial, the directors presented various explanatory papers, including a deduction of their title to New Netherland, and detailing the usurpations of the English from the time of Van Twiller. The States General communicated these papers to their ambassadors, who were about to set out for London, and instructed them to call the king's attention to the subject as soon as possible. July. English Council of One of the first acts of the royal government had, meanPlantation while, been to appoint a committee, "to receive, hear, exCommittee. amine, and deliberate upon any petitions, memorials, or other papers presented by any persons respecting the plantations in America, and to report their proceedings to the council from time to time." Of this committee Lord Say and Seal was one of the principal members. In the folNov. lowing autumn, a standing "Counsell of Trade" was created by patent. Soon afterward, the Plantation Committee, appointed in July, was superseded by another patent, which constituted Hyde, the lord chancellor, and several Dec. others, a Standing Council for Foreign Plantations, with Council for instructions to acquaint themselves with the state of the colonies, to correspond with the governors, to regulate trade, and generally to take "all prudential means for the rendering those dominions useful to England, and England helpful to them."* 1 Standing Foreign Plantations. * Hol. Doc., ix., 136-301; London Doc., i., 81-104; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 30-37. CHAPTER XX. 1661-1664. THE Restoration of Charles the Second, though hailed at CHAP. XX. the Dutch. first with joy in Holland, did not produce in Great Britain 1661. more friendly feelings toward the Dutch. The two nations English were now commercial rivals; and it was soon perceived at jealousy of the Hague that another crisis with England was approaching. The Act of Navigation had already closed, against Holland and New Netherland, the ports of New England, Virginia, and Maryland; and it was evident that no more was to be hoped from the king than from the Protector. While British statesmen were exhibiting such a spirit of commercial exclusiveness, a new element was introduced into political affairs. The Restoration had by no means been the unanimous act of the nation; and at Breda Charles had endeavored to win the good-will of all his subjects by declaring liberty to tender consciences. But the Royalists and Churchmen, who had so long endured Intolerance the yoke of Puritanism, now that they were again in pow- alists. er, insisted upon restoring the hierarchy. The Independents and Dissenters, wounded where they were most sensitive, could scarcely conceal their vexation; and many of them desired to seek new homes not subject to English rule, and where they would be free alike from monarchy and prelacy. These considerations were not overlooked in Holland; and the West India Company, finding that there were scarcely any colonists within their territory between the North and South Rivers, now forming the State of New Jersey, determined to invite emigration thither by the offer of large inducements. A new charter of "conditions and privileges" was therefore drawn up, granting to "all such of the Roy |